Falling Slowly: A Love Story
by thewhitepatch
Summary: A Prequel to Wayward Son: The Claptrap Story. In a very unexpected place, Angel reconnects with someone she met when she was a child. Follow them as their relationship changes them, and how they inevitably love and lose one another...What a downer. It's more of a romantic tragidramady, but you can't list all of that here. Also, Claptrap does Pre-Sequel related stuff!
1. Childhood

_Hello, and welcome to Falling Slowly: The Love Story, the prequel to Wayward Son: The Claptrap Story. The title is based off of the song 'Falling Slowly' from the musical Once. _

_First off, I should probably warn you, this story is based on some of the **SPOILERS**_ _based off of some of the spoilers to Wayward Son. In fact, this story revolves a pairing that is only revealed in the last few chapters. _

_I would greatly recommend reading that story before reading this one. _

_If not, then I will summarize the spoilers at the end of this chapter. to give people context._

* * *

Angel did not like going to work with her daddy.

For one thing, there was nothing for her to do. Sure, she could wait around at his cubicle, drawing pictures, but all he had were pens! You can't draw anything good with pens!

For another thing, her dad was always busy. He brought her along because her mother was away, but he was barely paying attention to her. He was glued to his computer.

Angel wasn't entirely sure what it was Hyperion did, but there sure were a lot of cool and colorful machines. She saw a lot of them on the way in.

This place WAS interesting. Just not the part her dad work in.

She looked up at her father. He seemed to be cringing at something on his computer.

He won't notice her slip away.

* * *

That was a spaceship.

That had to be a spaceship.

It was big. It was shiny. It was...spaceshipp-y.

They seemed to be loading something.

They were going on a trip!

Angel wanted to go to space! Space was cool!

She looked around. Nobody was looking at her. Everyone seemed to be busy doing their own thing. Daddy always said that she should try to stay out of people's sight.

That was why she had to hide her markings.

She figured it was better that way. She saw other kids at daycare who were different, and they got made fun of. This was probably for the best.

She was looking up at the spaceship when she felt someone tap her shoulder.

She turned around.

"Hi!" A boy exclaimed. "Admiring my ship?"

The boy was about a year younger than her. He had messy, dirty blond hair, green eyes, and was missing a tooth. He was wearing a green t-shirt under a blue jacket, and brown shorts.

"Your ship?" Angel asked.

"Yup!" The boy grinned. "I'm taking her out in a few days! My pa and I are going to a new planet!"

Angel raised an eyebrow.

"So it's your daddy's ship?" She asked.

"Well, both of us have the same name, so it's basically the same!" The boy exclaimed. He paused. "Are you coming with us?"

"Oh! No, I'm just exploring." Angel replied.

"Cool!" The boy exclaimed. "I was thinking of doing that! I've been in this hanger all day! Let's see the rest of the building!" He grabbed Angel's arm and ran toward the door.

"Wait!" Angel exclaimed. "I don't even know your name!"

"Oh!" The boy turned around and grinned. "Name's Clyde! Clyde Trappington The Second!"

Angel looked at the boy. "My name is Angel."

* * *

"So, what does your dad do?" Clyde asked, as he and Angel walked through the halls of Hyperion.

"I don't really know." Angel replied. "He said something about 'monkeys' and 'code.' Mommy said it's important. What about your daddy?"

"My dad's a scientist!" Clyde replied. "He's doing really important stuff! At least, he says he does. I remember hearing some people say this was 'busy work,' which I think is a good thing, because it means he's working!"

"That does sound good." Angel said. She didn't really know what to say to him. They were clearly different kinds of kids. Angel was a always a quiet child. Clyde, however, hadn't stopped talking since they left the hanger. she put in her comments when she could, but it was pretty obvious that Clyde was really driving the conversation.

"Look, a room!" Clyde exclaimed. Angel looked at the room Clyde was pointing at. It had a few diagrams of a planet in it, as well as a symbol that looked like an upside-down V in a circle.

"What is it?" Angel asked.

"Pandora!" Clyde exclaimed. "I'm going there tomorrow!"

"Are you afraid?" Angel asked.

"What's the worse that can happen!" Clyde exclaimed.

Angel decided not to answer that one.

"What happened to your arm?" Clyde suddenly asked.

"W-What do you mean?" Angel asked.

"It's all wrapped up!" Clyde exclaimed. "Like a mummy or something! Did you get hurt? Is it one of those girly things?"

"I can't show it to anybody!" Angel exclaimed. Clyde was somewhat taken aback by the sudden exclamation. Angel noticed this, and began to backtrack. "I-I mean, my daddy said that bad people will come after me if they know about it."

"...I'm not a bad guy." Clyde said, looking slightly away.

Angel thought to herself. What could be the harm in showing them to a random boy? He was younger than her, so there was no way he could possible be out to hurt her. Honestly, he didn't seem like the sharpest knife in the draw.

"...Ok. But you have to promise not to tell anyone!" She said, as sternly as she could.

"Cross my heart!" Clyde exclaimed.

"No. You have to pinky swear!" Angel said. She know that was binding.

"...Ok. How secret is this?" He asked, as they pinky swore.

Angel unwrapped her arm.

"...Woah." Clyde said. "Your parents let you get a tattoo?"

"I was born with them." Angel replied, looking at the marking on her arms. "My daddy says it means I'm going to grow up to be one of the most beautiful people in the universe!"

"...I'm pretty sure most dads say that to their daughters." Clyde commented.

Angel pouted. "But it's true! My daddy even showed me books about it! There are a bunch of pretty ladies with markings like mine. Like princesses!" She sighed.

"Why would you want to be a princess?" Clyde asked. "They're girly!"

"...I'm a girl." Angel reminded the boy.

"It's still girly." Clyde said. "I'd want superpowers!"

"Superpowers?" Angel asked.

"Yeah!" Clyde exclaimed. "Like being able to shoot things out of your hands, or pick things up with your mind, or flying!" Clyde exclaimed, acting out each motion as he described it. Angel laughed.

"That would be cool!" Angel agreed. She thought for a second. "Why not both?"

"What do you mean?" Clyde asked.

"A princess with superpowers." Angel replied. "That's what I want to be! A princess with superpowers!"

Clyde looked at the girl. "...Yeah, I could see that. You'll need a dress or something, though. I'll just stick to superpowers."

"Yeah. I don't think you'd look pretty in a dress, anyway." Angel joked.

"Well, yeah. Not as pretty as you, anyway." Clyde said, looking out the door.

Angel blushed at the compliment. She tried to hid it by wrapping her arm back up. Clyde, however, didn't notice.

"So what do you want to do now?" Clyde asked Angel. He noticed the she was blushing. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that she wandered away from her Daddy while he was working." A voice replied from behind Clyde, making him jump.

"Daddy!" Angel exclaimed.

"I didn't think I'd have to worry about boys trying to take you away for a while." John joked, kneeling down to the children.

"We were just exploring!" Clyde exclaimed, somewhat defensively.

"I bet you were." John said, smirking at the kid. "What's your name, son?"

"Clyde, sir!" Clyde grinned. "Clyde Trappington! Named after my dad!"

John frowned a bit. "Trappington...Down in research. I've heard of him. He's going to…" His eyes suddenly widened. "You're going to Pandora."

"Yup!" Clyde exclaimed. "It's going to be fun!"

Jack looked at Clyde sadly."But...you're so…young. And it's...dangerous."

"I know! I'm like a scientific marvel of planet traveling!" Clyde exclaimed.

John cringed to himself.

"Daddy?" Angel looked up at her father, causing him to look away from the boy.

"Yes, dear?" John said.

"When he comes back, can Clyde come over and play?" Angel asked.

"That'd be fun!" Clyde exclaimed. "I'd have a bunch of great things to tell you about Pandora!"

John looked between the two smiling children. He sighed sadly to himself. "Of course he can. If-I mean when he comes back."

"Thank you, Daddy!" Angel exclaimed. She and Clyde grinned at the man.

Suddenly, the intercom buzzed to life.

"Would Clyde Trappington Junior please report to the hanger? Your father is looking for you." The voice buzzed.

Clyde cringed to himself. "Seems like they noticed I'm missing." He grinned. "Welp, better go do my duty! Nice meeting you, Mr. Angel's dad!" He waved at Angel as he walked away. "Bye, Angel! See you when I get back! I'll tell you all about it!"

"You better!" Angel shouted back. The boy disappeared, and Angel was still smiling. John sighed. He should probably break it to her.

"Sweetie…" John said. "I'm probably going to say thing about all of your crushes, but you might be better off forgetting about young Clyde."

"Why, daddy?" Angel asked, confused.

"Well...Let me tell you about Pandora…"

* * *

_Ok, so this interested you in Wayward Son, go read that._

**_Here come the spoilers._**

_For starters, if you don't know your Borderlands, John is Jack._

_So let's talk about Clyde. Clyde is the son of Doctor Trappington, a Hyperion scientist sent to Pandora to study the wildlife. Trappington thought this was a waste of his skills, so he was irritated. He was also slowly losing his mind, becoming more and more adept at the Pandora lifestyle. He was still a genius, so Hyperion planned on uploading his mind and copying it into a guide-robots around the planet. _

_Trappington, however, had other plans. He had discovered a Lost Vault. It was the Vault that was used to create the monsters that were housed in various other Vaults. Trappington planned on entering the Vault to become something greater. _

_However, it turned out that the mind upload Hyperion was planning for him was much more lethal then he anticipated. If he allowed Hyperion to (painfully) upload his mind, he would never be able to enter the Vault. He planned on hacking the Hyperion device to allow his mind to be uploaded directly into the Vault, and he planned on working with whatever that lead to._

_Trappington began to have second thoughts. He was worried the hack wouldn't work. He was worried that his mind was going to be the one that was forced into a guide system. The "Mind Donor collection" drone was already outside of his tent._

_Then he remembered his son._

_His son, who he hated. His son, who annoyed him. His son, who he was positive was just a drain on their resources. _

_So he sent his son away with the robot._

_Clyde Trappington Junior's mind was forcibly and painfully uploaded. __The rest of his mind was copied and torn into pieces, becoming a hive-mind of various copies of the same broken mind. A copy of Clyde's original mind was left in the hive mind, left in the isolation of his own mind. However, his mind wasn't the mind the program was expecting. Something went wrong with the upload._

_And that's how Claptrap was born._

_For those of you who already read Wayward Son, let's talk for a bit._

_I tried to make young Clyde resemble Claptrap. I always thought of Claptrap as Clyde's childhood mind grown up, not a grown up version of mind. The phrase 'man-child' comes to mind. This story is going to somewhat explore the events that made Clyde, well, Clyde._

_I also wanted John to contrast how much of a dick Jack is. John's a good father, and Angel hasn't killed anyone yet. _

_We'll skip ahead a few years next chapter. And after that, I'll tell you the other thing I'm doing with this story._

_Leave a review!_


	2. The Claptrap Cloud

_Sorry for the long wait. Sadly, you'll probably have to get used to it. In s short amount of time, I'm going to be bouncing between five different stories. I also have a bunch of school work to do. In fact, one of the things that delayed this chapter was the play I had to write. So yeah. If you're a fan of my other stories, you'll get a more even rate of me. If not, just be patient. _

_This chapter jumps to a little before the first Borderlands game._

* * *

Pandora is pretty uneventful, Angel mused.

Sure, there were a few deranged tribes running about the planet, and the monsters could appear terrifyingly spectacular, but that didn't really do anything to make her less bored.

You can only watch a planet so much before you want to physically experience it.

Her father didn't know about her longing, didn't understand it.

"Angel, you don't want to go down there. You'd probably stay alive, sweetie, but you would go insane. Not worth the trouble. Now be a good girl and scope out the Badlands. I need to get more information about-Nothing, sir! Just crunching some numbers!

Angel knew that her father had plans. Well, she had a general idea about them. He saw the potential in Pandora that others didn't. Angel had to admit, she might have been one of those people.

She didn't know what was in that Vault her father was so obsessed about, but it had to be something important.

She really should try to get more invested, she thought to herself. There was literally nothing else she could do. She was too dangerous.

She thought that would make her ideal to survive on Pandora, but, like her father said, she would go insane with the isolation.

Angel sighed. She might as well keep looking around the planet.

Her observation skills were impressive. She could jump between different devices, looking at the planet through them. It was pretty handy when she could hop in an active drone flying around, but those were usually shot down pretty fast.

She was looking at an a cliff side, using some barely functioning mining equipment to observe them.. On top of the cliff was a group of bandits. Said bandits had acquired a Claptrap unit, and were abusing it for entertainment.

Angel always felt a little sorry for the Claptrap units. They were programmed with a crap AI, so she always felt that the bandits were shooting at children when they used one as target practice. Sure, they were kind of annoying, but Angel thought they had a bit of a charm to them.

She noticed the bandits were communicating about something, but she couldn't hear them. She would have to jump to a something over near them. However, the only thing she could potentially connect to was the Claptrap unit.

Angel sighed. She hated shifting into things that had AIs in them, but sometimes she didn't have a choice. They always sound so confused, and it usually hurts them. However, she was bored, and she never shifted into a Claptrap before.

"Executing Phase Shift." She said, activating her powers.

In a flash of light, she found herself looking through the Claptrap unit's eye. The bandits appeared to be talking about…

Woah, it's roomy in here! Angel did not realize how massive the digital interior of a Claptrap was. It seemed to be connected to some sort of cloud, perhaps a hive mind. Angel never went over the Claptrap blueprints, but she never heard about anything like this. It warrants more investigation.

Forgetting about the bandits, Angel inspect the mainframe of the Claptrap unit. However, something wasn't letting her pass. It was protected by a few firewalls.

Nothing she couldn't handle.

She shifted through the digital walls, only to find herself hit another wall. The rest of the data was in manual digital format. In order to progress further, she would have to activate a VR program. It would stream her conscious directly into the program, and explore in a physical way.

This could be dangerous, but Angel figured she had nothing to lose. Her father would probably want her to investigate this at some point.

She activated the VR program, and closed her eyes.

* * *

_When Angel opened her eyes, she saw something she wasn't expecting._

_Claptraps. Claptraps everywhere. They all seemed to be doing their own thing. Some were dancing, some were screaming, and some were just rambling. Most of them didn't seem aware of the others, while others interacted directly with one another._

_To some people, this would be Hell._

_As Angel began to walk through the crowd of robots, most of them seem to ignore her. It actually disappointed her. She could have done with some interaction, even if it was with a bunch of robotic perverts._

_It was then she saw the second thing that surprised her._

_There was another person here._

_The young man, around her age, had dirty blond hair and green eyes. He was wearing a green t-shirt, a blue jacket, and brown pants. There was something familiar about him to her. _

_He seemed to be interacting with some of the Claptrap units, annoyance in his face and voice._

"_...It really shouldn't be that surprising to you! You get caught trying to check out naked girls, they're going to dismantle you." The man said to a Claptrap unit._

"_But bro! They were hot!" The Claptrap exclaimed._

"_You don't have any gentiles." The man said._

"_Well, I bet you don't either!" The Claptrap exclaimed._

_For some reason, the entire situation this man was in made Angel giggle, causing him to notice her. He looked at her annoyed._

"_Oh, not this again." The man said, walking up to Angel. "Who's the wise guy that projected another girl?"_

_He walked right up to Angel, somewhat invading her personal space. She could feel her physical face heat up a bit. _

"_What?" Angel asked, confused._

_The man looked at her and smirked. "Oh, they made it respond. I have to admit, it does look realistic, whatever that's worth here. Really pretty, too. The figure give it away, though. Too nice. Like out of a fashion site. Here, I bet it's even a hologram."_

_Angel was a bit distracted by the array of comments when the man attempted to put his hand through her chest._

_Obviously, he couldn't._

_Which left him there, shocked, as his hand froze on her chest._

_Good looks and some sweet talk can get a man far, but Angel drew the line here._

_She promptly punched the man in the face._

"_What the hell is wrong with you?!" Angel exclaimed, her face beet red._

"_OW!" The man exclaimed, holding his face. He stopped for a second. "Wait a minute. Ow?" He looked up at her. "You're...you're a person!" He ran up to her and grabbed her face. "Like, a person in here!"_

_This earned him a knee to the gut._

"_Yes. What did you think I was?" Angel asked, looking at the man._

"_I thought you were an image some of the disconnected units made. They think they're so funny, saying they're trying to hook me up with something. Pervs." His eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry about that! I must have sounded insane! And like a pervert! I probably still do sound pretty insane." _

"_...Who are you?" Angel asked._

"_Who am I?" The man asked. "Well…" _

_He suddenly noticed her arm._

"_...No way…" He uttered, wide-eyed. He looked up. "...Angel?"_

_Angel grabbed her arm defensively. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"_

_The man suddenly grinned and opened his arms. "Angel! Don't you recognize me? It's me! Clyde! Don't you remember?"_

"_...How the hell do you know who I am?" Angel asked, eyeing the man._

"_We met when we were kid! I was like five or something! Hyperion! Your dad! Pandora! You gotta remember! I mean, I might remember a little better then you since, well, I don't have that many memories from before…."_

_Angel searched the back of her mind. She could vaguely remember his eyes and his grin. It was a memory from before her mother's death. It slowly came to her._

"_...Clyde?" She said, looking at the man. "You've gotten...bigger."_

"_Yeah. You too. Time seems to do that." Clyde replied._

_Angel puffed her cheek. "No need to be a smart ass."_

"_I've interacted with Claptraps for the majority of my life. I think I'm only capable of talking in sarcasm." Clyde responded._

"_What are you doing here?" Angel asked. "This is a digital space."_

"_Well…" Clyde said, looking a little downcast. "We were on Pandora, like I told you we were. One day, from what I can remember, a robot stole me away and brought me to a dark place. It did...something to me, and it took my mind out of my body and put it in here. I don't know why I'm here. Maybe they needed a human mind to moderate all these Claptraps. Crazy right?" He looked at Angel, a sad grin on his face._

_Angel thought about it. They could have torn Clyde's mind out of his body, like putting his brain in a jar ,and connected it to the Claptrap cloud._

_She could guess that the "they" Clyde was talking about was Hyperion. _

"_So what about you?" Clyde asked. "What brings you here? It's not that often visited. I mean it. You're the first person I've seen in here."_

_Angel didn't know how much Clyde knew about his situation, and she knew even less, but she was sure she didn't want him to know about her and Hyperion._

_Besides, her father told her not to tell anybody about it. Clyde probably could guess the siren thing, so she could wing it from there._

"_I used my powers to come here." Angel replied. "I'm can interact with technology with them. I'm connecting to Pandora through a satellite."_

"_Huh." Clyde said, looking at her. Something about his body language told her that he still had questions. However, he grinned. "Well, that's neat!"_

"_Yeah…" Angel said. _

_Suddenly, she felt her connection fading. The bandits had probably done...something to the Claptrap unit to deactivate it._

"_Angel!" Clyde exclaimed. "You're flickering!"_

"_My connection is fading." Angel said. She frowned. "I think you might be getting another friend." _

"_...Oh." Clyde said. "You're connecting through a Claptrap. I swear, those things seem to be trying to get themselves killed. I mean, they're annoying as hell!"_

"_I think they're kinda cute." Angel said with a small smile. _

_Clyde jokingly smiled back. "Well, don't let any of the one's here hear you say that. You'll never come back!" His smile vanished. "You'll come back, right?"_

_Angel thought about it. She knew she had responsibilities with her father, but she really enjoyed meeting somebody. Maybe, if she was discreet enough, she could keep meeting with him. After all, all she had to do was shift into a Claptrap unit and she could talk to him._

_Those things were everywhere. It wouldn't be had at all._

"_Yes." Angel said. "I would love to see you again." She offered up her own grin._

_Clyde blushed a bit. "Great! That's great! Well, how about-"_

_Before he could finish his sentence, Clyde saw Angel vanish. _

"_...Well, I've got all the time in the world." He said to the space she used to occupy._

"_She had a nice ass." One of the Claptrap AI's commented._

"_Shut up."_

* * *

So now Angel and Clyde have met in a more familiar setting. I'm not going to lie: most of the Clyde/Angel chapters are going to take place in the Cloud, since that's the only way they can communicate. Most of the real world stuff will focus on Angel.

The next chapter is the second function of this story. It's not going to be connected to the Clyde/Angel story. Rather, every other chapter is going to focus on the back story of one of the characters from Borderlands, as well as the OCs from Wayward Son. The chapter may take place over several days, it may take place over a few years. It all revolves around a certain moment in the characters life.

The next chapter will be about the original Vault Hunters. I think that, before it was retconned, the original Vault Hunters all grew up together. I like that idea, so I'm just rolling with it this story.


	3. Seperated

_I apologize for taking so long to update. I should explain._

_I was going to have this story alternate between the love story and various tales from the pasts of the Vault Hunters. However, I hit an incredibly harsh roadblock in that regard._

_I decided to change that. I'm not doing the backstories anymore. Instead, I'm gong to cover some Pre-Sequel stuff. This story is going to take place in the middle of Wayward Son. It takes place a week after Claptrap arrived on Pandora with the new Vault Hunters. It deals with events related to what happened in the Pre-Sequel. _

_If you haven't read Wayward Son, none of this will make sense to you. Sorry about that._

* * *

"So it's a loot cave?" Hyzin asked. The four Vault Hunters, him, Ted, Misty and Clyde were standing outside of a cave.

"Apparently." Misty replied. "We kill whatever comes out of it and harvest the loot."

"Strange mission to be given' folks." Ted commented.

"Why are we complaining!" Clyde exclaimed. "It's free loot! All we have to do is stand here and shoot! That's dope!" He happily aimed his shotgun at the cave.

"...Dope?" Ted asked.

"Eh." Hyzin shrugged. "Seems like a word he'd use."

"Wonder if he has a mute button…" Ted speculated.

"Don't be rude!" Misty exclaimed.

"Don't sweat it!" Clyde replied. "He's not the first person to ask!" If they could see his face under the helmet, they would see him grinning at them.

"Well, let's scope this cave!" Hyzin exclaimed.

The four Vault Hunters aimed their weapons at the cave…

...And they waited….

...And waited…

...Two hours later, nothing had come out.

"...Are we...doing this wrong?" Clyde asked.

"Maybe we should go inside." Hyzin suggested. "See what's up."

"Not a bad idea, pothead." Misty said, walking toward the cave. "Come on, boys. Let's go spelunking."

* * *

The four Vault Hunters wandered the cave. They eventually came across a large opening.

"Where are all the monsters?" Hyzin asked.

"Don't tell me they got rid of the loot cave!" Clyde exclaimed. "I love the loot cave! The loot cave was, like, the most useful thing ever!"

"...Have you been here before, Clyde?" Ted asked.

"No, he just get's kind of excited." Misty answered for him. He usually made slips like that, but Misty was thankful Hyzin and Ted never really looked into it that much.

"Well, there has to be something around here." Hyzin said, inspecting some rocks in the corner of the cavern. "Loot doesn't just appear. You have to kill stuff."

"Yeah." Ted said. "That's nature."

Clyde walked around the cavern, looking around.

"I don't see anything." Clyde said. "Maybe this mission is a bust." He exclaimed, leaning against the wall.

The wall promptly broke under Clyde.

"OH, COME ON!" Clyde exclaimed as he fell down the deep chasm.

He couldn't even hear his teammates shout after him before he hit the ground, blacking out.

* * *

Clyde slowly came to.

"Hey! I'm alive! Suck on that, gravity! And you too, surprised holes!"

He realized he was still in the cave. He sat up, examining where he was. It was hard to tell where he was, since there were a bunch of holes in the ceiling that he could have fallen out of.

"Huh. Good thing I was wearing a helmet. I probably could have died, and that'd be annoying!"

He attempted to turn on his radio.

"Hello? Helloooooooo? Guys? You there? Misty? It's me, Clap- I mean, Clyde! Hyzin? You there, bro? Ted? Man? Come on, guys! Don't leave me hanging!" He exclaimed. He knocked on the side of his helmet. "Crap! My communicator must have been busted in the fall! Hmm...Looks like my map's still working. Great! There's an exit! I'll just go out there and meet them outside! There's only one exit to a cave! Otherwise it would be a tunnel!"

Clyde, reaffirmed by his assertion, made his way toward the exit.

As he exited the cave, he realized this was a different exit then the one he entered in.

"Huh. This might be tricky." Clyde said to himself. "Maybe I should -HURK!"

Clyde felt an arm wrap around his neck, with a second arm restraining him. Knowing he was in trouble, Clyde began to plead.

"H-Hey, buddy! I don't know what you want but-"

"Quiet." A feminine voice said curtly, moving the arm around Clyde's neck to show a blade, which she promptly pressed against his neck.

"Yes, ma'am." Clyde quickly complied quickly. He felt the arms restraining him let go, and move for the lathes of his helmet. "Hey, what's the big-" The knife moved, and Clyde promptly shut up.

Clyde groaned as the helmet was eventually removed, and it fell unceremoniously to the ground. Clyde noted that this was the first time he was without his helmet since he arrived on Pandora.

He was roughly turned around, and was met with a familiar face.

"Hello, Claptrap."

"...Athena?!"

* * *

_So this chapter is short, but t least it's here. Now that I know what I'm doing, the updates shouldn't take as long. It should alternate between this story and the Love story._


	4. The Fyrestone Unit

_Originally__, I was going to have this chapter take up the entire first game, but then I realized there was a simpler story to tell with the beginning of the game. So here's something cute._

* * *

"Ok, any candidates today, Angel?" Jack asked. Angel couldn't see her father, but she knew he was likely hiding out behind his cubicle desk. It was strange how he was planning on taking over an entire planet, yet he still worked his day job. It seemed like something you would want to put more focus into.

Angel never brought it up. There were a lot of things she knew better than to bring up to her father.

Angel focused on Pandora. The handy thing about knowing Clyde was that she could easily tell where each Claptrap unit was. Using them as focus point helped her get a better view of the area. She made sure only to partially shift into each one. Any more and she would disturb Clyde.

While she did try to talk to him once ever few days (which quickly became seeing him every day), she realized that it would probably be better for both of them if her father never found about him. An unknown Hyperion AI would likely be seen as a threat to him, even if he wasn't one.

Angel was hesitant to call Clyde an AI. He claimed that he was a human, and Angel took his word for it. She had seen him in human form when they were younger. The only question she had was what state his body must be in for him to have no physical contact with the outside world for so many years.

She suddenly noticed a bus approaching Fyrestone. She was looking through one of the Claptrap units that was awaiting the bus's arrival.

"There are...four treasure hunters who arrived on a shuttle several hours ago. They are currently on a bus to Fyrestone." Angel reported.

"Great!" Her father exclaimed. "Now, say this to them: "Don't be alarmed…"

* * *

"_CLAPTRAP DOWN! CLAPTRAP DOWN!" A few different Claptraps were shouting, running around the cloud. Clyde just sat patiently in the center of the circle of screaming Claptraps, emulating his silent annoyance. _

_Claptraps died out pretty quickly, since the were seen as target practice by the majority of the citizens of Pandora. What sucked about it to Clyde was that the Claptrap AI would stay in the cloud, meaning it would never leave him alone._

_Clyde sighed and decided to check on the fallen unit. At least it would give him a break from having to put up with the other Claptraps._

* * *

He found himself looking at the sky. He recognized the gate to Fyrestone. This must have been the unit that met the bus. It wasn't really that unique.

At least, not to him.

Angel, however, had a soft spot for this Claptrap. It was weird. She always insisted that it was the cutest of the Claptraps, no matter how many times he pointed out that they were all identical. She also thought it was the funniest, despite the same argument he made before.

That girl had some weird taste. She claimed he was just jealous, which was ridiculous. There was no way he would be jealous of a dummy AI robot.

While he didn't personally care about the Claptrap, Clyde was worried about how Angel would react to learning her favorite Claptrap was busted.

Suddenly, someone large pulling the Claptrap upright. Clyde observed the four strange people looking over the Claptrap.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Lil?" The one in the mask asked.

"I can figure it out." The tattooed women, Lil apparently, said, as she played with the wires in the Claptrap unit.

"Easy, baby!" Clyde heard Claptrap say. "I'm sensitive there! You'll have to buy me dinner first!"

The look on Lil's face summarized the reason Clyde tried to avoid looking through the eyes of Claptraps. The looks of hatred and annoyance never bothered the robot, but Clyde never felt comfortable.

It also reminded him that he couldn't communicate with people through Claptrap units. He could never apologize for the stupid things they said. He could never explain himself. It was pretty lonely.

He was sometimes jealous at Claptrap for how robotic its emotions were. He would never feel shame for anything he did.

Clyde focused back on the strangers. Lil had decided not to work on Claptrap anymore, leaving the repairs to the soldier in the group. Clyde was suddenly wondering why they were even repairing the Claptrap unit to begin with.

Before Clyde could think more about it, the Claptrap unit suddenly sprung back to life.

Clyde felt a familiar presence rush into the unit, pushing him into the cloud.

* * *

_Clyde and Angel both gasped as they fell into the cloud, Angel landing on top of Clyde. Luckily, they didn't hit any Claptrap AI's in their fall._

"_Clyde!" Angel exclaimed. "Are you ok?"_

"_Well, I'm flattered you were in such a rush to see me." Clyde said. "You could have knocked or something."_

"_Usually I don't have to." Angel replied, getting up. "How about you just don't stand in front of the door? It's like you're a puppy waiting for me to come home."_

"_I was watching someone repair a Claptrap." Clyde replied. "I was wondering who would have hired someone to fix a Claptrap unit. I suspect you had something to do with it?"_

"_OK, I'll admit to playing favorites." Angel smiled. "He's just so cute! What would happen if he was destroyed?"_

"_Well, it'd still be here, for starters." Clyde replied. "And, if it wasn't, you could easily replace it. They're like goldfish." _

"_For someone who's spent so long looking over these AI, I'm surprised you can't tell the difference between them." Angel said in a mock-shock tone._

"_You know how, if you say a word enough times over and over, it sound strange?" Clyde asked. "That feeling is Claptrap's personality."_

"_But he's cuddly!" Angel exclaimed._

"_It's a metal box." Clyde said_

"_Clearly you've never cuddled a metal box." Angel said, smirking at him. "Someone jealous?"_

"_I bet I'm way cuddlier than a metal box." Clyde huffed._

"_I'm sure you are." Angel replied, giggling as Clyde's face lit up._

_Clyde groaned in annoyance and attempted to hide his blush before deciding to change the subject. "So who are these people you hired?"_

_Angel paused. Clyde wasn't sure why she always took a while to answer certain questions. Odds are she was just figuring out a way to explain it in a way he would understand it, given how smart she was._

"_I've decided to take up Vault Hunting." Angel replied somewhat tensely. "I'm not directly, physically hunting for it, but I'm going to help this group of hunters find the Vault."_

"_Oh." Clyde replied, accepting her answer. "Sounds fun. Make sure you keep me up to date." _

"_I will." Angel said, relaxing a bit._

_Looking back, Clyde was never sure why Angel thought she needed to hide what she was really doing from him. Maybe she didn't want him to be disappointed. Maybe she didn't trust him enough. Maybe she just wanted an escape from her normal life._

_He was happy he was able to give whatever she needed._

* * *

All I really need is a picture of Angel cuddling Claptrap.

The next chapter will return us to were we left of with Claptrap's story, and the chapter after that will take place at the end of the first game and through the DLC.

Leave a review if you like it!


	5. Thanksgiving with the Trappingtons

_So here's a stupid little thing I wrote after Wayward Son for the holidays. I thought the idea was funny so I decided to write it._

* * *

"How is this even happening?" Clyde asked aloud to nobody in particular.

"What are you talking about?" Claptrap asked. The two of them were seated at a living room table, food in front of them.

"Well, for starters, we each have our own separate bodies." Clyde said.

"Yeah! Now we can't watch each other have sex!" Claptrap exclaimed. "Which is good, considering I never figured out that not looking trick out, and it seems like it might be more of a problem now."

"Yeah, you shouldn't be complaining, Clyde." Angel agreed, jabbing Clyde in the rib with her elbow jokingly.

Clyde gently jabbed Angel back. "Which brings me to problem number two."

"You're not seriously saying me being back is a problem, are you?" Angel asked.

"Well, it is rather unlikely." Tannis commented from next to Claptrap.

"How many times has Claptrap died?" Angel asked.

"Well, that's my power!" Claptrap exclaimed.

"Maybe I copied it from him." Angel said. "Me and Clyde were pretty close, after all."

"I'm not complaining about you being back, dear." Clyde said. "That's actually the best thing about whatever this is. I just kinda wish we had some privacy."

"Hey! Don't go sweet talking my daughter!" Jack exclaimed angrily. Doctor Trappington ignored the man seated next to him, constantly eating his meal.

"And there's the problem." Clyde said. "We appear to be having dinner with both of our dead fathers and some crazy old lady!"

A roll was suddenly thrown from the head of the table, and Claptrap squealed in pain as it hit him in the head.

"I am not a crazy old lady!" The women exclaimed. "You'll show respect if you have eyes on my granddaughter!"

"Clyde was the one bad mouthing you!" Claptrap exclaimed, rubbing his head.

"This feel like nightmare." Jack said. "I'm stuck having dinner with my abusive granny, an asshole scientist and his asshole son, that crazy scientist lady, and Claptrap!"

"And your daughter who you apparently love very much." Angel said monotonously.

"Right, buttercup." Jack said. "And how come you're so calm about this?!" He shouted at Trappington.

"I've just accepted this is Hell." Trappington replied, looking up for his plate at Granny. "The food in Hell is delicious, by the way."

"Why, thank you, young man." Granny said, flattered. "It's nice to see my granddaughter has eyes on someone who has such a polite father."

"Polite? He killed me!" Clyde exclaimed.

"You killed me, so we can call it even." Trappington responded. "I like you now. You're much less annoying then you were as a brat."

"Really, Daddy?" Claptrap exclaimed.

"Claptrap, your daddy issues are showing." Clyde commented.

"I said Clyde here was my favorite, not you." Trappington responded. "You're everything I hated about junior, but somehow worse."

"Well, you're a douche, so I guess we're even!" Claptrap exclaimed.

Trappington growled in annoyance. The group began to awkwardly eat.

"...Where's Mom?" Angel suddenly asked.

"Angel, darling, do you really think your mother would want to see you?" Jack asked.

"Fuck you, dad." Angel replied, returning to her food.

"Language." Jack warned. Angel flipped him off. Jack gasped. "Mind your manners, young lady! What gives you the right to act so crudely?"

"Well, you did lock her away as a child." Claptrap said.

"And experimented on her." Clyde added.

"And forced her to manipulate others for your own good." Tannis added.

"Along with emotionally manipulating her yourself, like you did with that comment from before." Trappington added.

"Oh, look whose acting so high and mighty!" Jack exclaimed. "Tell me, where's your wife?"

"I killed her child." Trappington replied. "I'm just hoping I don't run into her, if this is Hell."

"Oh, yeah." Claptrap said. "Steve's our dad, not this guy. Why wasn't he invited?"

"I would guess that whoever organized this gathering wanted it to be a dramatic and awkward as it possibly could be." Tannis replied. "Now, since you are here, Doctor Trappington, I was hoping I could ask you about some of your research on the wildlife on Pandora."

"Of course." Trappington replied. "I would never turn down somebody who respects my knowledge."

"Tannis, please don't make nice with my not-dad." Claptrap commented. "You know about all the reasons why it's a bad idea."

"The man is smart, Claptrap." Tannis replied. "I don't like him, but I want to get whatever knowledge I can out of him before I attempt to murder him."

"...I'm beginning to realize I may be a bit underpowered compared to the rest of you." Trappington commented.

"Your dad's right. We're the strongest people in the room." Angel suddenly said to Clyde, standing up. "Come on, Clyde."

"Where are we going?" Clyde asked.

"The bathroom, where I'm going to ride you like a skag." Angel replied. "The door locks, so nobody can bother us. If _someone" _she glared over at Jack, "thinks he has any authority over me, I'll show him otherwise with my siren powers." She clenched her glowing fist.

Everybody was look at Angel, wide-eyed, then slowly turned to Clyde.

"...I-I'll meet you there." Clyde replied nervously. "I'm going to finish my veggies."

"Ok!" She said perkily, kissing him on the cheek. "See you in a bit!" She walked out of the room, past a fuming Jack.

"...WHY." Jack groaned.

"Well, you did keep her locked up through puberty." Trappington commented.

"Yeah, this is her going through her rebellious phase." Tannis added. "It is a common phase for a girl to go through. Also, you were generally a pretty terrible father, so she would want to find ways to rebel against you."

"Now, bro, since I assume you've never had sex before, I'm going to give you a crash course in a few minutes." Claptrap said, putting an arm around Clyde, who was furiously slurping down mashed potatoes.

"Could you...I don't know, not do that?" Clyde asked.

"You best eat up, sonny." Granny said from the head of the table. "If she's anything like me, she'll have the adrenaline of a coked-up puppy."

"And I'm done." Clyde said, pushing himself up. "Great meal. Thanks. I'm going off. To do. People. Angel, specifically." He awkwardly rambled, before leaving the room.

"...And they say I'm the awkward one." Claptrap commented.

"...You were right. This is Hell." Jack said, slamming his head against the table.

"Try the chicken." Trappington commented.

* * *

_Hope you guys liked this little extra chapter! Happy Holidays!_


End file.
